The Cloud and ‘Trickle-Down': Big Data for All?

Is the cloud raining down big data tools to the masses? Have your say, below. Image: Mr Novelty/Flickr

GigaOM Pro has published a new report that coincides with its Structure 2012 conference in San Francisco today, and one focus that stood out to ZDNet’s Rachel King is “how cloud computing has trickled down the employee food chain in the last year and how that is transforming companies.”

GigaOM Network infrastructure curator Derrick Harris explained in the report that’s because complex tasks, such as big data analytics, are becoming easier to handle and more “consumable” thanks to the cloud.

One aspect of this “trickle-down” effect that Harris describes is that Software-as-a-Service apps can essentially mask working with big data at all because it’s done automatically for the user thanks to “dashboard-like tools that generate real-time charts from company data and services.”

That makes accomplishing workloads and tasks much simpler and faster, offering the potential to make better business decisions faster.

Have your say: Is the cloud’s benefits trickling down where you work? How about in your daily life? Are big data tools now at your fingertips?